My Ranking of Hughes Replacements

[bugmenot]

1. Jamal Crawford - Highly unlikely
2. Cuttino Mobley
3. Bobby Simmons (Milwaukee-bound)
4. Joe Johnson (Doubt it)
5. Marko Jaric
6. Doug Christie

Getting Crawford would be awesome, I'm not a huge fan of his, but when he's on, he's unstoppable, look up the game vs. the Bobcats earlier this year.

[Gamebreaker]

I like Crawford too, but there is a definite lack of defense in his game. And with the way our team plays defense, especially the backcourt, I would rather acquire a guard who can make up for the poor defense we can already expect from Arenas.

[DonMagicJuan]

doug christie? O HELL NO...i rather have steve francis whos on teh trading block then CHRISTIE...eww

[Gamebreaker]

Christie plays great defense though, and he's a hardworker on the court. I actually wouldn't mind Christie as a Wizard, because we really don't need another scorer when we already get more than enough in the backcourt from Arenas. We have players who can score plenty, we just need to get them the ball.

Having Christie in there instead of another ballhog, would force Arenas to look to the rest of the roster for support. Haywood could definitely be that for us, and it would be all the better for our team because he's the center.

[bofluid]

I'm all for bringing Christie in. If, and only if, he agrees to be our third guard.

[jmwills1]

Jamal Crawford. Are yall insane? Him and Gilbert would be the nly 2 players who would shoot. That guy is such a ballhog. When hes on, hes on, but he is only on about 10 % of the time. And when his shots arent dropping he still jacks up 20+ shots a game.

Hughes leaving is setting us back quite a bit, especially with the lack of quality 2 guards left. I dont like mobley because he is streaky, I dont think Jaric would come here because he wants to play the point, the suns are gonna match johnson, so I guess christie is the best option.

[NavyDave]

I have faith that we will find a defensive minded guy for the backcourt and we can always move our SF to the 2 guard for offense.

[Loki]

What about Jarvis Hayes? He is not as aggressive, but he is a better shooter and rebounder. I think he can start and be solid...

[Skinned]

Originally posted by Loki
What about Jarvis Hayes? He is not as aggressive, but he is a better shooter and rebounder. I think he can start and be solid...

Jarvis has yet to show that he can be consistent as well as stay healthy.

[NJFootball]

Yeah, I'd want Christie in as a backup guard probably, not as a starter. If we get Crawford I'm all over Hughes leaving as he'll be much cheaper.

[Gamebreaker]

Originally posted by Loki
What about Jarvis Hayes? He is not as aggressive, but he is a better shooter and rebounder. I think he can start and be solid...

Jarvis has been touted as a shooter since he's been drafted, but has yet to do so consistently. His defense is mediocre, and he's always got an excuse why he isn't performing up to expectations. In his rookie season he started out really well, then his game plummeted and he blamed it on poor conditioning, not being used to the long NBA schedule. Last season it's his shooting hand and then he gets an injury that puts him out for the rest of the season.

I don't understand what anyone sees in this guy which gives them any indication that he's ready to be a starter next season.

[LA56Dawg]

how about Stevie Blake to the PG spot and move Gilbert to the SG

[Gamebreaker]

What is wrong with Christie as a starter? Sure, he's not a scorer. But what do we need more? A shooting guard who can only shoot, which is all that is available out there right now, or a guard who can defend better than anyone on our roster.

We can resign Dixon to get that spark of scoring from the backcourt when it's needed. But we NEED to sign a guard who can play defense. Currently, none of the guards we have now can play defense worth a lick and if we go into next season without signing one who can. You can expect to see our defensive woes continue, since our main problem on defense is an inability to stop dribble penetration.

[bofluid]

Originally posted by Gamebreaker
What is wrong with Christie as a starter? Sure, he's not a scorer. But what do we need more? A shooting guard who can only shoot, which is all that is available out there right now, or a guard who can defend better than anyone on our roster.

We can resign Dixon to get that spark of scoring from the backcourt when it's needed. But we NEED to sign a guard who can play defense. Currently, none of the guards we have now can play defense worth a lick and if we go into next season without signing one who can. You can expect to see our defensive woes continue, since our main problem on defense is an inability to stop dribble penetration.

If we were to acquire Christie I'd like to think his role would be determined by what we do with the frontcourt. If we can somehow get a big man with a lot of scoring ability I wouldn't be adverse to starting him. As it stands now our frontcourt would be JJ, Brendan and Antawn. JJ and Brendan aren't that big of scorers. I'd argue that Brendan could be one if we got him the ball more, but that's a post for another time. If we were to start Christie we'd have 2 nonfactors (JJ and Christie) on offense and one big time enigma in Brendan. Gil and Antawn are capable of carrying the load on offense, but it's my belief that they would wear down over the haul of the season. Gil was playing at an unbelievable clip when Larry was out. I have my doubts over whether he could maintain that pace. Nothing against him though, he's obviously a star.

Now, if we were to acquire an Abdur Rahim or a Sweetney, a type of guy who can put the ball in the basket, I'd have absolutely no qualms with Christie being a starter. I would definitely prefer to bring Christie off the bench though. He'd be a very effective player in a Trenton Hassell, Bruce Bowen type of role. I'm really hoping EG makes a push for him. In the back of my mind though, I'm scared Christie could be a shot player because he looked pretty bad in Orlando after he was traded. I think he was distanced from his wife while he was there though, so that could've been the problem

[arenasisgod]

KOBE

[Erigion]

Lebron! Wade! Shaq! KG! Duncan! Dwight Howard!

But we can always dream can't we?

[amaprius]

Antoine Walker! Game Changer Extraordiaire!
His influence took an undermanned Boston team to the playoffs.
They could not do it with Pierce alone.

[Gamebreaker]

Sweetney doesn't seem to be an better a scorer than Christie, maybe I'm looking too much into the stats.

EDIT: Nevermind, disregard that comment. I've looked at his game-by game statistics and he had quite a few big games last season. He's problem is that he's VERY inconsistent and could follow a 18 point/10 rebound night with a 4 point/3 rebound one.

[bofluid]

Yeah, Sweetney seems to be one of those guys whose stats don't paint the best picture of him. Knicks fans seem to be pretty high on him for the most part.

[Warhead36]

No chance in hell we get Joe Johnson. The Suns are giving him the max. If we weren't willing to give the max to Hughes why the hell would we give it to Johnson?

[Gamebreaker]

After looking at Sweetney's game-by-game statistics, and thinking it over, I've changed my mind on making a trade for him. If the Wizards will trade him for Kwame, although Kwame still has the most potential and could possibly still end up being the better player, it could work out for us.

There is definitely no guarantee that Kwame will turn his career around.